Hurricane Katrina brought some successes

LARRY WALL

Sunday

Sep 9, 2007 at 12:01 AM

HOUMA -- While there is no way that the memories of Katrina and Rita will diminish anytime soon, it is important to remember that there were some successes.

The Cajun Navy, composed of people who used their own boats and risked their lives to help people in need, speaks volumes about the character of people in this state. The success of the animal-rescue shelter that was set up in Baton Rouge probably saved the lives of some of the people who simply could not abandon their pets as they evacuated.

The oil industry was severely affected by the two hurricanes in 2005, but it too had a success story that is worth noting. A part of the recently released economic study prepared by the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, "The Energy Sector: Still a Giant Economic Engine for the Louisiana Economy," shows how the offshore industry withstood and recovered from the two storms.

Loren Scott, author of the study, said in the report that nearly all Gulf of Mexico oil production was shut down following Hurricane Rita and gas production had an 80 percent shut-in rate. However, by December 2005, the pro-duction rate was down only four-tenths of 1 percent as compared to pre-Katrina levels.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, after roaring through the Gulf of Mexico. Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita also came through the Gulf, making landfall Sept. 24, 2005.

There are other findings in the report including:

As of January 2007, the MMS had identified 125 spills of petroleum products totaling 15,302 barrels that were lost from platforms, rigs and pipelines as a result of the two hurricanes.

Those spills did not occur due to the lost of control of producing wells.

There were no major spills (2,381 barrels per spill or greater) according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

According to a report on "Oil in the Sea" from the National Academy of Sciences (1995) far more oil enters the ocean from natural, underwater seeps than from offshore production platforms. In fact, the seeps introduce about 1,700 barrels of oil a day into U.S. marine waters.

Over the past 20 years less than 0.001 percent of the oil produced in U.S. state and federal waters has been spilled.

There were no accounts of spills from facilities on the OCS that reached the shoreline or oiled birds or mammals or involved any large volumes of oil to be collected or cleaned up.

Scott notes in the report, "The bottom line is these two huge storms came right through the heart of the offshore oil and gas industry and there were virtually no significant spills offshore. One policy implication is that the United States is the only country on earth that restricts oil and gas exploration in some of its offshore areas (the East Coast, West Coast, West Coast of Florida and coastal areas of Alaska.) What residents along these coasts fear the most is coastal damage from oil spills. The after effects of Katrina and Rita should go a long ways towards dispelling those fears."